Tony Wheeler dot Net

As a student of Church Planting over the past decade or more, I’ve seen a lot of fads come and go.  Systems that work well for one church in one location but fail miserably in another.  I’ve seen God’s hand divinely placed on some churches while others struggle and eventually close.  One thing that I can say with certainty is that there is no one right way to plant a church.  What works for one may not work for another.  What one pastor can pull off, another will fall flat on his face with.  In the following, I’m NOT bashing anyone, just sharing where my heart is at.

A couple of observations:

• Many times church planters read a book or attend a boot camp and return to their hometown or the place that they have lived for a number of years.  I think that this sometimes causes a loss of the missional focus of the gospel unless there is a strong DNA already there.
• The picture of what it looks like to plant a church in 2008 in the United States is not easily reproduced by everyone with a calling to plant a church.  Elaborate sound systems, projectors, state of the art facilities…they all cost money.  Not everybody has access to a ton of cash.  Not everybody should plant this kind of church, anyway.
• The core of the the Great Commission is not planting new churches, but making disciples.  We have gotten caught up in a wave of planting churches because it is the cool thing to do and not really gotten good at making disciples.  We have the idea that if we have a great sermon on Sunday and having small groups throughout the week automatically makes disciples.  I’ve read the Bible (okay, I’ll admit that I did skim over some of it…I’m sure that it is important who begot whom, but it is DRY!) and I haven’t found this formula anywhere.  Jesus wasn’t interested in teaching the multitudes for a long time, he was interested in forming a band of 12 and then about 70 into dangerous Kingdom agents. Why is this not our strategy?

Being different for the sake of being different is dumb.  Being different for the sake of the Gospel is not.  I’ve been greatly influenced by a number of different speakers and authors, but in the past couple months I’ve been devouring everything that I can get may hands on regarding Simple Church or Organic Church.  I’ve been greatly blessed by Neil Cole, who wrote Organic Church and a host of other stuff that most people haven’t even heard of.  I heard Neil at the Exponential Conference back in April.  He explained a bit about how discipleship is a lost art and that we are on a search and rescue mission.  He explained about how Awakening Chapels, the organic church planting movement that he founded, does discipleship.  Life Transformation Groups (known by many other names) are one of the primary vehicles that they have used in disciple making.

LTGs are groups of 2-3 people of the same sex who meet for one hour each week for Bible reading, accountability and prayer.  The Bible reading is 30 chapters a week.  Seems like a lot, but Neil explained that the goal isn’t simply to finish the reading, rather the goal is to not finish the reading.  If the reading isn’t finished by one person, then the next week the same 30 chapters are to be read.  This continues until everyone finishes the reading. There are a series of accountability questions that are asked and each person should answer truthfully.  Finally, each person selects a couple of people in their lives to pray for.  When God moves into the lives of those people that we have been praying for, new LTG groups are formed.  The possibility for exponential growth is literally limitless.

Simple enough?  You bet.  Can anyone do it? Indeed.  Can it be transferred to other cultures, time periods in history and survive trends in church planting?  I think so.

So, LTGs are the simplest form of church that I have been able to find.  The Bible promises us that where two or more are gathered in the name of Jesus, that he is there also.

Is that it?  Is that where we want to stop? NOT A CHANCE!

Stay tuned for Part III — The Simple Way Church.

Having just spent the better part of last week around 2800 people who aim to return to their home turf and plant churches, I have a lot of stuff swimming around in my head that I’m dealing with.  Prior to last week, I’ve kind of been quiet.  I’d not listened to too many podcasts, read too many Christian type books, surfed many blogs or really thought about what God sent us here to do.  I think that was good for my soul.

Having met and spent some time with some people who are really kicking some serious tail, I’ve got a fire in my belly.  I’m not ready to lay it all out here just yet, but hold on to your britches.  I’m really not a hyped up kind of guy.  There are really few things that make me get really excited — the kind of excited where you jump up and down and get all silly.  God’s been planting seeds in me for a couple of years…those seeds are about to sprout and that makes me excited.
So, all that said, I was doing a little blog reading today and my blogging friend, Ben Arment, had a great post about the difference between a church planter’s first and second church plant.  Now I know that I have never been a lead guy in a church plant, but I’ve done various things at various levels in several plants over the years, so I can feel where Ben is coming from.  The huge thing that Ben talked about was a shift in priorities.  I especially think that in the coming years, the shift from any one ‘church’ or denomination or network to the Church of Jesus Christ will be HUGE.  With declining numbers of people in pews, the economy tightening people’s budgets, and disinterest in organized religion, we are going to have to band together.  Things will have to change.  I’m not saying that God won’t still build his kingdom — that really is ultimately his job, he just invites us along for the ride– but we are commanded to go into all the earth and make disciples, so we should probably be doing that. You should head on over to Ben’s blog and check out what he has to say.  He is a great blogger, marketer and Starbucks fanatic.  I think he and Scott Hodge have kept Starbucks afloat while Howard was away.

(You know, it is funny, now that I have to drive at least 10 miles to get to a Starbucks, I want it daily.  I could drink an Venti-sugar-free-hazlenut-skinny-iced-latte pretty much any time of the day.  I’d much rather have something from a local joint, but alas House Blend is like 25 miles away.  Love you guys, but can’t make that trek for a latte! Wow, I’ll end the parenthetical sidebar now.)

Just was reading a blog by Pete Wilson, aka Without Wax. BTW, I love that name. Sine(without) cera(wax). Sincerely.

Pete blogged about a lecture given by N.T. Wright and during the Q and A one person asked N.T. what his view of the importance of the church was. His answer came straight out of Ephesians 2:10, which says, “For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus, to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do.” I really like how N.T. put it, “we are God’s artwork created to dispense God’s grace and love to a watching world.”

Thanks, Pete and Bishop Wright. We all need those words daily.

edit: Link to Pete’s site was something else.  I should probably proofread.

The last week of my life has been pretty crazy.  I spent a lot of time hanging out with a great bunch of people, listened to a bunch of great music, looked a ton of places to live and ate a lot of stuff that was bad for me. I also got the pleasure of getting some sort of sinus problem.  That is a lot of fun on an airplane.

One of the things that I did was to take part in Humana 2.08. Humana is a leadership experience like no other.  It is basically an open source missional experience.   One of the discussions that I was able to take part in was actually a decompression from a talk earlier in the day.  Simply an open dialogue with people of opposing viewpoints converging into a practical conversation about how we “do” church.  I’ve just now (literally) ordered the DVD for the entire conference and cannot wait to get my grubby hands on it so I can partake in the entire experience.  I was challenged more by the few minutes I spent with these fine folks than I have been in awhile. I can also say that this day alone was worth the price of my entire trip. 

One of the ideas that  I came away with was the idea of structure (and have subsequently been wrestling with).  I think that  a large part of our western culture struggles with ideas and organizational models.  I think that it makes us uncomfortable when we aren’t exactly able to place a name on something and put it inside a nice little box.  Take a look at the churches that we form.  We have nice little names for everything, complete with descriptions of each little thing.  (On a side note, I think that with an formal organization of any substance or size, these are needed, so no flaming) Truthfully, one of the things that I have become uncomfortable with is the entire idea that everything has to have a certain order and structure.  When I started my church planting journey, my pastor showed me all of the stuff that he had compiled and categorized and honestly it made me sick.  It made me sick that I thought I had to do that same thing.  I’m not saying that it was bad that he did those things by any means, but the thought of me doing those things just didn’t sit well with me.  Another thing that never sat well with me was the idea of a church planter assessment.  I couldn’t really explain it at the time, but it really got under my skin.  I’m beginning to realize that it had a lot to do with the whole thought of being stuck inside a certain box, for better or for worse.  (Now, I’m not against assessments, I’m just against them for me…at least for now)

So what does this all mean?  It means that I honestly feel freedom.  Freedom from the structures that I have built up in my mind.  Freedom from the models and modes of ministry that have been ingrained into me for the past ten years.  Freedom to embrace who I actually am both as a Christ follower and as a person on mission.  I’m energized by hanging out with people who are looking to the future and engaging the culture in which they live in ways that are actually relevant.  (I’m not saying that everyone else is irrelevant, so please don’t take  it that way)  I’m excited about what the future holds for my family as we begin this crazy journey to the end of the world.  I’ve got more questions than answers, but what I’ve come to embrace that as a good thing.  The secret isn’t thinking outside the box, it is knowing that there isn’t a box.

 So, what are we going to do in Orlando?  We are going to live the lives that God has for us to live.  We are going to fight to make the world a better place to live.  We are going to connect as many people as possible to each other and to their Creator.  It won’t look like what you think it should look like.  It could be a music festival, it could be a gathering of people for a barbeque in the backyard.  It probably won’t look anything like a church and that is okay too.

I’m not anti-Church as the west knows it, I’m just convinced that there are ways of engaging people that aren’t inside of a building or around some structure.  I’m not throwing out the baby with the bathwater.  There is a harmonious balance that we must find.  We are on the same mission.

For those of you who have been supporting us with your words of encouragement, prayers and guidance…we are thankful for you.  Please continue to do so. 

My friend Chris Elrod wrote two very powerful posts recently. In one he talks about the ‘emergent church’ and in the other he talks about the ‘mythical Jesus’. I gotta tell you that I read both of these posts with great interest because I’ve been interested (like the rubbernecks at a car wreck) in the whole emergent movement for a number of years. There are some non-theological issues that I think the emergent movement has right on. I’ve long held that if Christians were doing EVERYTHING that Jesus taught that there would be no need for homeless shelters, soup kitchens, welfare, and all of those social programs that so many rely on the government to provide. Yes, of course, the poor have always been among us and always will be, but I think it would look much different than our current system. But, theologically speaking, I think Chris is right on. It is absolutely stupid that leaders, teachers, pastors, and authors throw out the Word of God as some plain old book that is filled with neat stories that may or may not be true. Jesus lays it all out pretty well in the Sermon on the Mount (more specifically Matthew 5-7). Of course, you would have to believe that Jesus is who he says he is and that this book that we supposedly are to follow is true. That really is where the chasm occurs. If a person cannot believe the Bible as the inerrant Word of God, then what are they basing their ‘faith’ upon? I do realize that people in countries without the scriptures in their hands believe in much of the same things many of you and I believe in, but they seem to have gotten the word in some other fashion. The emergent people have the Word and are parsing it in their favor. The funny thing is that these people are doing a lot of good in the world, but they are doing it under false pretenses. I’m not intending to call anyone on the carpet, I’m just stating some of the thoughts that were sparked in my head by reading what Chris wrote. As he said, some of you may choose not to fellowship with me because I don’t agree with your theology. That is fine.

Honestly, I know Chris well. He is a solid God-fearing and Christ-loving man. He would give you the shirt off of his back and a bottle of water or ten. He loves other people more than he loves himself and takes every opportunity to show them that. But he is a serious guy (kinda strange since he used to be a comedian). He is serious about God. He is serious about His Word. He is serious about seeing everyone in Polk County, Florida come into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and will let nothing stand in the way of that. That is why he comes across as ‘I don’t have time for this crap’. He doesn’t have time for it. The flock that he leads really is his first priority and love. I’m not really trying to defend Chris here. He doesn’t need me. He has a congregation behind him. I’ve met some of them. Polk County borders some pretty serious redneck areas and Chris has been a chaplain to a number of prisoners. (Also, I think the Russian Mafia is pretty active in Central Florida…don’t ask why I know that) He is covered.

Anyway….go read his posts. I’m sure that these two posts will break both his email inbox and his server. What they don’t know is that Chris probably never will see any of the hate mail. Chris, PREACH!

1. The people who make up Christianity are determined to be ‘in the world, but not of the world’ so much that they are overwhelmingly compelled to form sub-cultures to suit their separateness. I’m a fan of Christian books and a few musical selections, but do we really need absolutely everything to have an ixthus on it?
2. Even though Jesus tells us that we are to love God and love people, we spend our time “loving God” and judging people.
3. Boycotting any institution, business, people group or soft drink has never solved any of the world’s problems, but yet Christians insist on continually boycotting stuff. If you really want organizations of any kind to change, why don’t you get involved? Get on the City Council, sit on the Board of Directors, start a business…Just stop boycotting. It makes those of us who actually love God and love people look really bad.
4. Why are we insistent upon having alternatives to ‘pagan’ holidays? We take the one day a year where the entire neighborhood comes to your house, knocks on your door, and asks you for a treat and hold a ‘harvest festival’ at our churches. This is one of the dumbest things I can think of. Halloween is probably the second most important Christian holiday. Oh, by the way, don’t hand out some stupid tract with the candy. Be creative. Tracts are dumb. I’ve never heard of anyone accepting Christ because of a tract. If you really want to reach out, have a haunted house in your basement or garage. Do something cool not just for the kids but for the parents.
5. For the most part, we have no idea who our neighbors are. My neighbors are difficult to get to know, but I’m working on it. Do you know yours?
6. It is trendy in Churches to be ‘relevant’. Relevance is relative. Are you relevant to your culture or someone else’s? That is where the rubber meets the road…What is relevant in Rochester, MN is not relevant in San Diego, CA.
7. Finally, I hate that I cannot even call myself a Christian without negative connotations. I love Jesus. I follow his leading in my life. I learn from the way that he did life and ministry. I don’t follow the people who follow him because many of them suck. I suck sometimes too, but the difference is that I realize it, learn from it and don’t do it again.

A big thanks to all who have responded to my last post so far. I know more of you want to chime in and have your voice heard. The answers and thoughts that were given are great and spot on from what my perspective. I purposely left out some of the details of the conversation, however. What is the answer to this question when the person whom you are talking with does not have the same understanding of God that you do? What if they are Muslim? Or Hindu? Or insert any other religion here. Original sin is great when you are talking with someone who shares your Christian worldview. It isn’t so great when the other person believes that everyone is basically good. Probably the answer to the whole scenario is that the worldview must change in order for the thoughts on this matter must change.

So, once again, the floor is yours. Post up!